10 Benefits of Dance That Will Get Your Kid Moving!

Dance is a universal language since the beginning of time. It is a phenomenal activity that can benefit your child in many different ways. Looking back, I regret that I did not take my dance lessons back in school more seriously. Apart from making sure, your child doesn’t end up with two left feet, there are many more advantages to taking up dancing. Read on and learn more.

Physical Development

Children have boundless energy and dance is a good way to channelize this. Regular dance practice improves your child’s stamina, flexibility, and posture. Dance is also therapeutic and is advised for children with Autism to develop their motor skills.

Stress Buster

My mother, who is in her mid-fifties recently signed up for Salsa classes. I was apprehensive as she was pushing herself to practice at the end of a hard day’s work, and I thought she’d end up absolutely exhausted. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see her completely relaxed and glowing after dancing for a week or so. Yes, dance is definitely a stress buster at any age.

Creative Outlet

Everyone needs a creative outlet to express and bring into focus their thoughts and feelings. Be it dance, music or painting, they are all forms of expression to help you revel in being the person you truly are. Dance sublimates your emotions, be it joy, anger, or depression, helping you heal and remain centered.

Social Skills

Every class that your child attends will give her an opportunity to make a new set of friends. This will develop her social skills as she meets and interacts with other people and learns to appreciate their differences.

Fitness and Health

Dancing can be equated to a strenuous workout; though a fun one! Going through the precise and demanding steps and routines can be exhausting, yet at the same time, exhilarating. It will also help your child shed any extra kilos they might have acquired, courtesy of junk food, and enable them to stay fit. Dancing is said to be good for the heart too.

Appreciation of Culture

Learning a dance from a particular region exposes the child to the nuances of that culture, thus broadening her horizons. For instance, when your child learns Bharatanatyam, she will learn about mythical characters and ancient folklore. This extra knowledge helps children to appreciate and value their own culture and roots as well.

Perseverance

Nothing in life comes easy and the same applies to dance as well. Even if your child has a natural flair for dancing, it will still require many hours of rigorous training and practice before he can excel at it. This will teach him the value of perseverance and hard work, and of not giving up midway.

Coordination

Dancing is said to improve a child’s physical and mental co-ordination, which is vital in developing other life skills such as swimming or cycling. It also helps in learning to multitask successfully.

Confidence Booster

Children are not born with stage fear, but acquire it as they grow up. However, children who are used to going up on stage or performing before an audience from a young age, tend to have better confidence levels as they grow.

Kinesthetic Intelligence

Dancers have better hand-eye coordination and better-developed motor skills than the average human being as a result of repetitive moves. This improves their kinesthetic intelligence in the long run. That is, perhaps, the reason that the Greeks valued the maxim of ‘a sound mind in a sound body’. We are not fully alive until we tap our body’s intelligence.

So what are you waiting for? Get your child into his dancing shoes—it’s the time to disco!